The Shotgun Approach Is Old-School Sales

selling, old school approach, sales tip, consulting,

The shotgun approach to selling is old-school sales  (and not in a good way). How many unsolicited emails/instant messages do you receive every day from someone you’ve never met trying to sell you something? How often do you buy from these people? For those who answer anything other than “never,” you’re definitely the exception to…

Read More

Words That Motivate and Influence

Sales Maven, Nikki Rausch, Sales Tip

Do you have words that motivate and influence you? Trigger words? Words that when you hear them pique your interest. Or, maybe even stop you in your tracks because you’ve got to know more? Most of us have a few trigger words. Of course one of the biggest challenges is knowing what are the “right”…

Read More

Success Leaves Clues: Here’s How

success leaves clues

Success Leaves Clues. When’s the last time you thought about what success means to you? Is this something you focus on regularly? Years ago when learning Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) we learned that success leaves clues. Learning how to pay exquisite attention to the people who are having success in certain areas of their life/business will give…

Read More

The Neglected Gift In Sales & How To Overcome It

gift sales

Which do you prefer, receiving a thoughtful gift or giving a gift that someone will cherish for years to come? Maybe in the last few months, you’ve done a favor for someone that to you seemed insignificant. Yet, to the person on the receiving end, it felt like an enormous gift that made a huge difference…

Read More

Client Retention Strategies: Clients You Should Focus On

client retention strategies sales maven

Client Retention Strategies: When’s the last time you stumbled upon a sign that made you pause and ponder about a deeper meaning? Maybe the sign was meant to be funny, or maybe it was meant to help you find your way somewhere, and yet it made you think about how else the message applied to…

Read More

How To Price A Product Or Service

Business woman deciding how to price a product or service

When deciding how to price a product or service, it’s all about confidence. You know that old saying, “It’s not what she said, it’s how she said it.”  How many times have you gotten yourself into a sticky situation by the “how” you said something? A frequent topic clients want to discuss is what they…

Read More

Potential Clients: Why Chasing Clients Doesn’t Work

potential clients applauding after a sales presentation

Potential Clients: Do you like to be chased? For instance, if someone right now said to you, “I’m going to chase you,” would you prepare to run? And, would it be kind of fun? Would you enjoy it? In the selling process when you’re chasing after clients, it’s usually because they are running away. When this…

Read More

Diffusing An Angry Customer By Pacing & Leading

woman diffusing an angry customer

Diffusing An Angry Customer: When’s the last time you lost your cool at a company for mistreating you as a client? Unfortunately, too often the way companies train their employees to handle angry customers is what escalates the situation vs. calming them down. A few weeks back, after multiple attempts of working with my bank…

Read More

Ruining Your Reputation By Targeting The Wrong Clients?

my bad

Ruining Your Reputation: When’s the last time you purchased a product/service only to be disappointed in the quality of what you received? What did you do about it? Did you ask for your money back? Did you write a negative review? Or, maybe share your experience on social media? There’s nothing worse than having someone…

Read More

Unconsciously Incompetent: Identifying An Ideal Client

unconsciously incompetent

Have you ever had a day when you felt like banging your head on your desk if another client asked you this dreaded question, “Why do you need to know that?” How many times have you needed information from your client to deliver on their expectations and they acted put out by your request? Does…

Read More

A Big Mistake In Your Speech Pattern

a big mistake

When you think about what you offer to your clients, do you consider yourself different from your competitors? Chances are your experience, your style and/or your approach makes you stand out from the crowd. How do you talk about your uniqueness? Do you end up having to explain yourself multiple times because people don’t get it…

Read More

My Bad: Stop Saying This In Place Of An Apology

my bad

When’s the last time you were the customer and had a bad experience? Maybe it was at a restaurant, a local store or maybe it was with someone you hired to provide a service for you. Did you bring it to someone’s attention? And if so, how was it handled? It’s always been my opinion…

Read More

Customer Discount: When To Offer A Discount

happy shopper after receiving a customer discount

How do you respond when someone asks you for a discount? Do you feel compelled to offer one or are you comfortable saying no? Many people struggle with what to say when asked for a discount. A little over a year ago I published an article with some specific language of what to say when…

Read More

Price List: Should You Include It On Your Website?

price list

Price List: When you visit a website looking for pricing, and it’s not listed, what do you do next? Do you fill out a request form asking for pricing or do you go back to Google and click on the next option in your search? At a speaking gig recently, a participant in the audience…

Read More

Sales Snob: Are You Inadvertently Talking Down To Clients?

sales snob sales maven

Are you being a sales snob? Is there anything worse than someone who wants to sell you something coming off as condescending or a sales snob? Let’s face it; nobody appreciates being talked down to. It’s a huge rapport breaker. And, if you’re anything like me, people who come off as condescending have zero chance of…

Read More

Suggestions For Improvement Might Help You Close Deals

Suggestions For Improvement

Suggestions For Improvement: When’s the last time you had a huge ah-ha moment? And when’s the last time that ah-ha moment was realizing you had a huge blind spot hindering your business? My big ah-ha moment of realizing my blind spot happened recently. The frustrating part of this “big” realization was people had been telling…

Read More

How To Create Curiosity About Your Business

create curiosity

Have you ever noticed the difference between how you call a dog vs. how you call a cat? Many times when people call dogs, there is excitement in their tone and an almost frantic pitch to their voice, “Come here boy, come here boy…” When calling a cat, we tend to take a different approach.…

Read More

Follow Up: Never Dread Following Up Again

Follow up

How good are you at a follow up with prospects? When you meet someone and take their business card, do you immediately reach out to them once you’re back at your office? Or are you like the rest of us and the business card goes into a pile on your desk of people you’re “going…

Read More

Client Relationships: How To Build Them Long Term

Client relationships

When you’re in the position of being a client/customer, do you enjoy being thanked for your business? Is it important to you? Let’s face it; you can have the best product/service in the world and it doesn’t really matter unless you have clients. And since we know people buy from people they know, like and trust, building…

Read More

How To Win Over Skeptical Clients

skeptical

When you read or hear about a new program that is promising never before seen results, are you skeptical? “Make Six Figures in Six Weeks” or “Lose 50 lbs. in 5 days” – Many of us know when it sounds too good to be true, it’s usually too good to be true. The result of…

Read More

Don’t Be A Conversation Interrupter

interrupter

Don’t Be A Conversation Interrupter   Are you a conversation interrupter? Do you enjoy being in conversations where you get a sense that the other person has a hidden agenda? When this happens, do you keep your guard up? Maybe you’ve been in a conversation before where you thought it was going well, and then the…

Read More

What Are Clients Saying Behind Your Back?

Business Reputation, Positive Impression, Rapport, Savvy Sales Tip

Have you ever wondered what people say about you and your business when you’re not around? Of course, we all want our happy clients out there singing our praise. But, is that happening? And if not, why not? Not too long ago someone (let’s call this person Chris) who I’ve admired in business was all…

Read More

Do This First – The Sales Will Come

Sales Maven, Sales Tip, Sales Maven Blog

Have you ever met someone and instantly thought to yourself, this person is only interested in selling me something? If you’re like me, that is an instant turn off, and usually, I want to get out of that conversation as fast as possible. Too many people are approaching sales as if the only thing that…

Read More

How To Effectively Deliver New Information To A Prospect

Delivering Information, Delivering a proposal, sales training, sales tip, savvy sale tip

Do you ever wish it was easier to share information with a prospect when they think they already know everything you’re going to say? Maybe they’ve seen or heard about your product/service and have already started to form an opinion.  Yet, after asking a few questions, you find out there is much they don’t yet…

Read More

Build Credibility Quickly When Networking

Rapport, Honest Sales people, savvy selling

Do you love to network? Do you look forward to attending networking events? I asked these same questions while presenting to a networking group recently and not one person raised their hand. The next question was, “How many of you network because you see the value of building your community and it’s where at least…

Read More

Build Credibility Quickly When Networking

Rapport, Honest Sales people, savvy selling

Do you love to network? Do you look forward to attending networking events? I asked these same questions while presenting to a networking group recently and not one person raised their hand. The next question was, “How many of you network because you see the value of building your community and it’s where at least…

Read More

How To Say “No” To Pushy People

how to say no to, sales maven, sales help, sales coach

How good are you at saying no? Most of us struggle with telling people no because we don’t want to hurt their feelings or have them think negatively about us. How do you say no to pushy people? A few days ago a good friend called wanting some help with a situation.  She said, “I…

Read More

Effective Email Communication

effective email communication

When’s the last time you sent out emails announcing some great new program and didn’t get a single response? As a business owner or sales professional, effective email communication is essential to connecting with potential clients and generating leads. It’s frustrating to put in the effort to craft a thoughtful email only to receive little…

Read More

Responding to Criticism

business woman responding to criticism

Have you received any criticism lately? When you receive criticism do you go into fight or flight mode (the instinctive physiological response where you either ready yourself to resist forcibly or you run away)?  Which one is more common for you – fight or flight? When criticism comes from a client, responding with either a…

Read More

How To Figure Out What You’ll Make Next Year

Breaking down your numbers, income, sales goals, goals

Have you begun planning out your business strategy for next year? And as part of your strategy, have you set a goal of what you want to make next year? This is a discussion I’ve been having with many of my VIP clients lately.  We’ve not only talked about how much they want to make,…

Read More

Stop Bait & Switch Selling

Bait and switch, misleading customers, savvy sales tip, transparency, relationship selling

A sure fire way to ruin a relationship is by misleading someone. Whether you fib to your partner, your boss, your best friend or to your client, the relationship will suffer and may even be damaged beyond repair. Misleading clients in marketing and in sales is known as bait and switch. Many times bait and…

Read More

A Better Way To Evaluate Your Performance

performance assessment, evaluation, success, savvy sales tip

Would you say you’re your harshest critic? There’s a good chance you are, in fact, way harder on yourself than you are on anyone else. Maybe you hold yourself to a much higher standard than your fellow colleagues. After coaching business professionals for the last few years, I’ve found many of them to be experts…

Read More

Phrases That Repel Clients

Client Retention, New Clients, Customer Acquisition, Savvy Selling

Do you ever get tired of people telling you what you “should” do or what you “must” try? It’s become a popular tactic on social media, and if you’re anything like me, it’s off-putting and repelling. I worked with a client recently who didn’t understand why people stopped interacting with her on Facebook. When we…

Read More